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Toyota stores ranked the highest in responding to customers who visit dealership websites in the 2020 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index Internet Lead Effectiveness Benchmarking Study.

"This part of the car business is as important as ever — customers grabbing their phone and looking something up is just how any kind of shopping is begun now," Pied Piper CEO Fran O'Hagan said in an email to Automotive News.

Pied Piper submitted customer inquiries to websites of 5,063 dealerships between July 2019 and January 2020, asking a question about a vehicle in inventory and providing a name, email address and local phone number. Dealers were evaluated on how they responded by email, phone and text over the next 24 hours. Auto brand rankings are based on a 100-point scale

Toyota toppled last year's No. 1, BMW, with a score of 64, seven points higher than its 2019 performance. Behind Toyota was Cadillac with a score of 62, up from last year's 55, and tied for third were Mini and Subaru with scores of 61.

Brands with the greatest improvement in the last year were Dodge, Chrysler, Ram, Alfa Romeo and Lincoln. Dodge jumped 11 points from the 2019 study.

Fiat and GMC remain at the bottom of the study's list.